The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to ponder how the gifts of wisdom and patience can aid our management of motives that precede evil action.
Mindful of Patience
The reading from the First Book of Kings describes the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon.
* [10:1–13] The sub-unit on Solomon’s wisdom contrasts with 3:16–28. There Solomon’s gifts led him to listen to the humblest of his subjects; he accomplished justice and was revered by all his people. Here the emphasis is on his clever speech to a foreign monarch. She is duly impressed by the glory of his court, but it is she, not Solomon, who recalls the monarch’s duty of establishing justice (v. 9). The unit is interrupted briefly by a remark about Solomon’s maritime commerce (10:11–12).1
Psalm 37 is an exhortation to patience and trust.
* [Psalm 37] The Psalm responds to the problem of evil, which the Old Testament often expresses as a question: why do the wicked prosper and the good suffer? The Psalm answers that the situation is only temporary. God will reverse things, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked here on earth. The perspective is concrete and earthbound: people’s very actions place them among the ranks of the good or wicked. Each group or “way” has its own inherent dynamism—eventual frustration for the wicked, eventual reward for the just. The Psalm is an acrostic, i.e., each section begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section has its own imagery and logic.2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus applies the Tradition of the Elders concerning unclean food to the intentions of our heart.
* [7:19] (Thus he declared all foods clean): if this bold declaration goes back to Jesus, its force was not realized among Jewish Christians in the early church; cf. Acts 10:1–11:18.3
Kimberly Grassmeyer comments that reading Jesus’ words reminds us that nothing from the outside can defile us. What matters is the content of our heart.
Our reflections can challenge us to take stock of what lingers there… from the list that Jesus enumerated, I can identify too many personal failings: “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” But the good news is, our reflections can then reveal to us where we still have room to fight against these evils, so that we may grow in love. The noise and negativity of the world are best dealt with by being true to the better angels that live within us. Let us pray, asking God to strengthen Christ’s love in our hearts against all things that defile. Amen. 4
Don Schwager quotes “The cycle of bitterness broken by forbearance,” by Tertullian, 160-225 A.D.
"Let us, then, his servants, follow our Lord and patiently submit to denunciations that we may be blessed! If, with slight forbearance, I hear some bitter or evil remark directed against me, I may return it, and then I shall inevitably become bitter myself. Either that, or I shall be tormented by unexpressed resentment. If I retaliate when cursed, how shall I be found to have followed the teaching of our Lord? For his saying has been handed down that one is defiled not by unclean dishes but by the words which proceed from his mouth ( Mark 7:15)."(excerpt from ON PATIENCE 8)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Psalm 37:5-6, 30-31, 39-40 comments that it is easy to think that committing our way to the Lord should be like jumping out of an airplane: no going back, no changing our mind. But it’s not an absolute “once and done” deed. It’s a commitment that we need to reaffirm every day. Today’s responsorial psalm encourages that.
As you do, God will act. Perhaps he will give you a wealth of wisdom or comforting words to share with someone who is struggling. Or maybe you will experience the riches of patience in a difficult situation, healing of an illness, or freedom from habitual sin. Strive to follow the Lord faithfully (not necessarily perfectly), and you will see him act. Recall this verse often during the day, and renew your commitment to God as you do. You don’t have to be perfect—neither King David nor King Solomon was. Just ask God, who is good and who loves you, to help you do better. He will guide your every step. “Lord, I commit my day to you today. Help me to walk in your paths.”6
Friar Jude Winkler fleshes out the understanding of wisdom in the time of Solomon. Some of the evil motivations in our heart are listed in the Gospel. Friar Jude reminds us of the lifelong struggle to purify our motivations.
CAC teacher, Brian McLaren, sees the Trinity as offering a healing vision of the world, in which we create a holy community that overturns categories of “us” and “them”. This Trinitarian vision of God helps us imagine a relational universe of one-another ness, community-in-unity, unity-in-community, being-in-interbeing, where benevolence toward the other is at home, and hostility toward the other is foreign, invasive, out of place.
God-with-God in community leads us to envision God-with-us in community. And that vision in turn dares us to imagine God-with-them in community. And that expansive vision invites us higher still: to envision God-with-us-and-with-them in community. This approach to the Trinity need not be a litmus test used to legitimize us and delegitimize them. Instead, it can be a gift, offered to others like a poem, not an ultimatum—given not to require assent-leading-to-acceptance or dissent-leading-to-condemnation, but rather to inspire us to reverence otherliness as a theological attribute. At that moment, Trinitarianism becomes not only a healing doctrine but a healing practice. [2]7
The divisions and disagreements that we witness in our society today show us the need to seek the guidance of the Spirit to the wisdom and patience we need to live out our call to love all the people we encounter on our journey.
References
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